


an actually very rational fear of rather big birds

by klesek



Series: Angst [1]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: 'cause why the fuck not, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), So here we are, i wrote two of these and thought "what if i wrote one for each link"
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:15:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26576653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/klesek/pseuds/klesek
Summary: “Big brother!”Aryll waved and started to walk across the bridge.She was about half-way across when they heard a squawk and saw a giant bird swoop in.It grabbed her.“BIG BROTHER!!” she screamed.“ARYLL!”Link ran after her, blinded by the need to get his sister back, and ran straight off the cliff.He felt a hand grab him, a voice telling him to get a hold of himself, that she was gone, that there was nothing he could do, and he just stared at her.As the giant bird carried his screaming sister away.
Series: Angst [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1933099
Comments: 5
Kudos: 105





	an actually very rational fear of rather big birds

**Author's Note:**

> so aryll and wind would probably be scared of big birds (no, not b i g b i r d. though they would be scared of big bird, probably). so here's this, where wind is just. having ptsd.  
> sorry? idk

Wind was falling.

He opened his eyes and looked around.

He could only see sky and clouds.

He also noted that he was falling backwards, his back to the ground (or no ground) he was falling towards.

So he turned to face the way he was falling, and saw that he was about to fall into water.

He closed his eyes and held his breath.

\---

“Wind?”

Wind opened his eyes and saw that he was underwater.

He swam to the surface and took a deep breath.

He saw Sky in front of him, holding out a hand to help Wind out of the small river he was in.

Wind grabbed his hand and Sky stood up, pulling him out.

Wind stood up and shook himself off. He looked around and saw the others, and the place they were all on.

They were on a large island, but not surrounded by water, but by… the sky?

“Welcome to Skyloft!” Sky said happily.

“This is your home?” Four asked.

Sky nodded. “Used to be,” he explained. “Now Zelda, me and other people live on the surface.”

Sky led them around Skyloft showing them all the different places. They looked around the whole place, notably staying away from the edges. Sky seemed very proud of his home, happy to be here.

“Okay,” Sky said excitedly. “I saved the best for last.” He ran up to one of the close wooden platforms on the edge of the island..

Then he ran off the edge and whistled.

After a second, not even, something swooped under him and ‘caught’ him.

Wind froze and looked up in horror at the giant bird Sky was _riding._

Wind backed up, his mouth opening but not saying anything.

He was too terrified.

_“Big Brother!”_

“That’s amazing!”

Wind blinked and shook his head, looking back to Sky and the bird, who had now landed next to the others on the wood platform.

_How can he ride that thing?!_

Wind forced himself to go over to the others, but he stayed as far away from the bird as possible.

“Wind?”

Wind looked to his left and saw Time there, looking worried. “Are you okay?” he asked.

Wind didn’t answer.

He looked back to the bird, standing next to Sky. Everyone else seemed perfectly fine with it, petting it and looking at it in awe.

“Yeah…” he finally whispered, just loud enough so Time could hear it.

Time gave him a hug.

Wind pushed him away, looking a different way, at the clouds beneath Skyloft. Which was not exactly helping his situation, as he never liked falling from high places, and he just now realized that he had fallen from a high place at least three times in his adventures.

After a few seconds of Wind not saying anything, Time went back to the others.

Wind followed him and finally mustered up the courage to go up to the bird.

He very carefully reached out to pet it, his hand shaking as he went to pet its neck.

And it bit his hand.

Wind screamed and backed up.

And he was falling again.

He was crying now. Screaming and crying. This was too much. He shut his eyes tight.

_BIG BROTHER!!_ _  
_ _  
_ _ARYLL!!!_

He heard a whistle and felt arms grab him.

He stopped screaming, but was still crying.

He didn’t open his eyes, he didn’t want to see the bird.

He felt the bird land and someone (probably Sky) get off the bird, still carrying him.

Wind opened his eyes, breathing heavily, tears streaming down his face.

“Wind?” Time asked. “Wind, are you okay?”

And this time Wind answered honestly.

“No.”

_BIG BROTHER, HELP ME!_

\---

Wind had calmed down a bit and was standing next to Time, hugging him as Time rubbed his back.

Wind stared at the bird, furious at it but also scared.

Sky was petting it, calming it down.

Wind took a deep breath.

“I’m scared of birds,” he blurted.

Everyone looked at him.

“B-big birds only, though,” he stammered. “Like, not seagulls, but big birds like… that.” He pointed at Sky’s bird.

“Oh, you have ornithophobia!” Wild said.

“No,” Wind snapped. “A phobia means it’s irrational. This is very rational.”

“Well what happened that made you afraid of big birds?” Wild asked.

Wind froze.

_“Big brother!”_

_Aryll waved and started to walk across the bridge._

_She was about half-way across when they heard a squawk and saw a giant bird swoop in._

_It grabbed her._

_“BIG BROTHER!!” she screamed._

_“ARYLL!”_  
_  
_ Link ran after her, blinded by the need to get his sister back, and ran straight off the cliff.

_He felt a hand grab him, a voice telling him to get a hold of himself, that she was gone, that there was nothing he could do, and he just stared._

_As the giant bird carried his screaming sister away._

\---

Wind couldn’t deal with this.

He was overreacting, maybe, but he couldn’t help it.

_It was all coming back._

_The bird._

_The screams._

_The draining feeling of hopelessness he felt as Aryll was carried off._

_He couldn’t feel anything except panic._

He knew that at this moment, he was on the floor, breathing in slow, short gasps and was crying silently as someone shook him, trying to wake him up from the sleep he wasn’t quite in.

But he could only feel all the feelings he felt at the moment when Tetra grabbed him.

_Panic._

_Sadness._

_Anger._

_Hopelessness._

_Numb…_

_Nothing._

And in the real world, he felt arms pick him up.

He felt nothing else.

Nothing real, no emotions, just the numbness that was there when the Helmaroc King had carried Aryll away and flew out of sight.

\---

Sky looked at Wind worriedly as Time set him down on the bed.

Wind was just curled up in a ball, not reacting to anything as he silently cried.

“I didn’t mean to scare him…” Sky said miserably. “What happened that made him so scared of birds?”

No one answered.

Silence.

\---

Wind opened his eyes.

He was in a bed, but not his own.

“Wind!” he heard Hyrule say excitedly.

He sat up, rubbing his eyes. “Hey, ‘Rule..” he mumbled, tired.

“You okay?” Hyrule asked.

Wind got out of the bed and stretched. “Yeah,” he said, yawning. The others were also in the room, everyone looking worried and happy at the same time, for some reason.

“Did I…” Wind started, confused. “...do something?”

“You could say that,” Legend said.

“Oh shut up,” Wars said to Legend.

Wind just looked around, confused. “Did something happen?” he asked.

Sky cleared his throat. “Well,” he started. “Uh, why don’t you like birds?”

Wind froze. “W-what?” he stammered.

Sky rubbed the back of his neck. “My loftwing bit your hand,” he explained. “Only because that’s a loftwing’s way of saying hi!” he added hastily. 

“Just get on with it,” Wind said, confused.

“Well,” Sky started again. “You were surprised and fell off the edge, and I got you back up. You explained that you’re scared of rather big birds. When Wild asked why you were scared of big birds, you just… froze.”

Wind stiffened.

“And then you just started crying and wouldn’t respond to anything,” Sky finished.

Wind looked at the floor.

“Can…” Sky started. “Can you explain now?”

Wind was silent for a few seconds, suddenly realizing that he never actually told them that much about Aryll and the Helmaroc King. They just knew that he was a twelve year old that had an adventure and eventually ended up stabbing Ganondorf in the head. They just knew about his adventures from the stories he told, the tales of pirates and fighting, the tales of adventure and courage.

He never told them about the not-so-fun parts.

“You ever heard of the Helmaroc King?”

\---

Every hero had something he was personal about.

They all had their fair share of not-so-fun parts.

They all had parts they didn’t want to talk about.

For Wind, Aryll and the Helmaroc King.

For Legend, Koholint.

For Wild, his failures.

For Warriors, war experiences.

For Four, the Four Sword and the Minish, and the ‘betrayal’ that tore him to pieces at first.

For Time, the countdown.

For Hyrule, how monsters were constantly out for his blood.

For Twilight, the children and the Twilight Realm.

For Sky, the real reason they all ever had to go on their quests, the real reason they all had the parts they didn’t want to talk about.

The real reason why.

**Author's Note:**

> So there's gonna be one of these for each linked universe link! you can tell which ones are my favorite to angst just by reading their fic in this series. sorry for the uneven representaion of sadness, but i'm trying to make them all sad! trying very hard not to make my favorites have much angstier fics, because that would be favoritisim and that's not fair! my point is, is that some of them may be angstier than others, it's kinda hard to not pick favorites.


End file.
